Steve Gregory get Down To The Bone

Steven Gregory immortalises human remains by giving old bones the ultimate bling makeover. Taking skulls sourced from medical antique dealers, the South African-born artist breathes new life into them by adorning them with precious stones.

Jet, pearls and malachite become the new flesh, and freckles and beauty spots are represented by diamonds and rubies. Gregory’s new exhibition, Down To The Bone, which opens at Opus today, features a selection of his bejewelled skulls, as well as a number of other skeletal objets d’art.

Till Death Do Us Part, for example, is a love seat made from bronze casts of human bones, and features two 18-carat gold wedding rings sitting on what were once ring fingers.

Gregory’s macabre aesthetic has certainly proved to be a hit within the art world. Last year, his Bone Stone Bronze show at New York’s Nicholas Robinson Gallery was a sell-out success, and his work has been exhibited alongside such names as Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Tracey Emin.

As if his credentials weren’t impressive enough, Gregory is also championed by his good friend Damien Hirst, who owns seven of his works. Indeed, several of his pieces were featured in In The Darkest Hour There May Be Light: Works From Damien Hirst’s Murderme Collection at London’s Serpentine Gallery.

This, though, is hardly surprising given the striking similarities between Gregory’s skulls ‘ which he began making in 2000 ‘ and Hirst’s own recent diamond-encrusted platinum skull, For The Love Of God, the most expensive work of art ever created.

Gregory, however, is keen to distinguish his work from Hirst’s, and reckons that their approaches are fundamentally different. Where Hirst used a platinum skull, his pieces immortalise genuine human remains, encouraging the viewer to question to whom the skulls once belonged.

Furthermore, he says his pieces ironically reference the 17th-century Dutch vanitas tradition, which used symbols such as skulls and decaying fruit in order to reflect the transience of life.

Whatever the aesthetic differences, however, Gregory’s creations start at £25,000, in comparison to the reported £50million paid for Hirst’s For The Love Of God. If nothing else, Gregory’s pieces are definitely a more affordable option.